Mesa Boogie bass amp

scottpro1969 · Post by **scottpro1969** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:37 am

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with Mesa products? I have a line on a near new Mesa Big Block 750 bass head and am wondering if anyone has tried one out. Any help is appreciated.

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 10:20 am

I had one of their 400 bass heads and one of their full-range cabs and that rocked. I also had one of their mark III guitar amps and I liked it a lot, though with the wide array of options, I tend to prefer other amp brands these days (especially for guitar.)

I can't really find any negative issues for that bass amp and speaker combo that I had. What I will say is that I was never able to make it sound as good as an Ampeg tube SVT. The greatest bass sound I ever heard in my life came out of a Rick, an SVT, and a custom cab with an 18" gauss speaker. And no, it wasn't me playing.

jps · Post by **jps** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 11:27 am

It's heavy! Something like 35lbs. That's getting into all tube amp territory.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:42 pm

Well they're heavy compared to your 5.4 lb head Jeffrey

, to me that would be light. I use SVT's and have tried most of the newer all tube heads and haven't been impressed with any of them.

alan · Post by **alan** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:48 pm

I have a Walkabout, and I love it. Tried the 750 and MPulse 600, they're also quite nice. The 750 has an 8 stage tube preamp as opposed to the 4 stage in the 600 and Walkabout. For a hybrid amp, I think it has killer tone, and tons of clean headroom. Of course, nothing else is Ampeg, but the light(er) weight of the Mesa is certainly a big plus. Also, the powerhouse bass cabs are second to none for tight clean response, and built like a tank. I use a 4x10, and 2x10 with the Walkabout head, PUNCHY. I'd give them Boogie bass amps a 9.5 on the Ampeg 10 scale.

jps · Post by **jps** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:43 pm

You're certainly right about that, Bob! It's all in perspective.

Let's see, if I were buying a new amp now, do I go for the Mesa/Boogie made in Petaluma or the Nampeg made in Saigon? Hmmm...

scottpro1969 · Post by **scottpro1969** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 5:08 pm

Thanks for the input guys. I'm considering trading a newer F*$der Jazz USA (which I can't get used to the thin neck)...go figure, for this head. I can't find a price list for this particular cab but I saw a Bass Player magazine article reviewing it saying the "street price" was $1,350.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:39 am

"street price"
I think the bassplayer reviewers were all drug dealers before they got respectable jobs.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:28 am

And you think they gave up dealing when they got respectable jobs, is that it?

Slightly naive of you, Bob...

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:39 am

haha!